Balance of Power-part two.

Until 9/11 national power was expressed through the muzzles of guns. With the obscenely expensive interventions into the mid-East all that changed. Power for the last decade has resided in economies. The world leaders today are characterized by rapid economic growth--with highly trained and educated hordes of manpower, willing to work under disciplined conditions, for modest wages. They have scant interest in workers rights. They have new and advanced production facilities, access to the raw materials of the less developed world, and tight control of their currencies. In addition they are willing to extend credit on easy terms, even to financially
stressed countries such as ours.
By transferring our industrial base to the Asian giants, we traded conomic power for
miltary dominance, and set our feet firmly on the road to second class national
status. Now that military power of the traditional variety no longer works in the asymmetric warfare common today, we find we have made a fool's bargain and must work
our way back to fiscal health. Slashing sll government programs across the board won't do it. It requires sensible growth policies designed and administered by
experienced economists, not rabble rousing politicians. The sooner we get at it the better our chances for success.